follows: OFFICERS. employed in a colliery of 526 persons are subdivided as Brought forward ... 105 Waggon-riders. 11 4 1 Banksmen 8 1 Surgeon Screeners 12 Clerks..... TOTAL ...... 526 105 Saddler Waggonway-wrights Carried forward The joiners and sawyers keep the works in repair; the enginewrights make and repair the machinery; the enginemen keep the machinery in action; the firemen attend the boilers; the smiths prepare the ironwork in the rough; the waggonway-wrights lay down and mend the railroads, &c.; the waggon-riders, of which there is one to each train, are the conductors of the waggons; the staithmen attend at the staith, to empty the waggons of coal into the ships (when near to the sea) or trucks (when in the Midland collieries); banksmen deliver the corves, or skeps; wailers are boys who pick out the stones, and otherwise clean the coal; corvers are the makers of the baskets in which the minerals are brought from the bottom of the mine (corves are superseded in many places by tubs, which are made of iron); the heap-keeper looks after the quality of the clean coals; the store-keeper presides over a vast magazine of stores, which he delivers to the men as they are wanted; the attendants on the railway include engineers and furnace-men; the trimmers fill up the holds of vessels with the coal discharged into them from the staith: the hewers are the miners who "hew" out and blast the coal; putters put the corves on the trains; dragmen and foals draw the coals to the bottom of the shaft (their work is in a great measure done by horses now); helpers-up and trappers manage the ventilating doors. NORTHUMBERLAND PITMEN. The education of the men, women, and boys is very defective; few can read and still fewer write; they are, however making considerable progress, and may be considered, when viewed externally, to be a tolerably well-behaved, shrewd, hard-working, and hard-feeding community. Temperance societies are encouraged by them, and they seem to take a deeper interest in the welfare of the soul than they did a few years ago. A NORTHUMBERLAND PITMEN'S VILLAGE. The houses consist each of one room with a washhouse behind, and a chamber over the whole, access being obtained to the latter by means of a ladder. About 200 such abodes, ranged at irregular intervals along the roadside, constitute one of these hamlets. Heaps of ashes and other refuse are suffered to accumulate before the front and back doors, and upon these, during fine weather, a number of robust and half-clothed children, of an age too young to be employed at the works, are too often suffered to idle away the day. In front of every fifth or sixth house stands a bakehouse for common use, which contains a large brick-built oven. Early in the morning the wife and daughters of a pitman may be seen assembled there with sundry old gossips to bake a week's bread for the family; and to a person who has no previous idea of the sharpness and extent of a pitman's appetite, the size of the loaves may perhaps be a matter of some astonishment. Before the front window of each tenement stands a pile of small coal, which is replenished every week by a gratuitous cartload from the pit. STAFFORDSHIRE COLLIERS. The Staffordshire colliers have many of the hard features of character observable in the North. The figures are generally robust, but their faces, when the coating of black dirt in which they are encased gets rubbed off, appear ghastly pale, and even at an early age are ploughed with deep furrows. One of the oddest peculiarities in these men is the almost universal substitution of nicknames for regular sur names. Many laughable examples might be given of this; space, however, will not permit. COLLIERY OPERATIONS. After all preliminaries have been settled, and the shaft sunk, preparations are made for bringing the" coal to land." The minerals are hollowed out, and the roof, which is the hardest part of the strata, is supported by pillars, consisting for the most part of unexcavated coal. Wooden props are sometimes used, but are far less safe than the coal pillars. As the miners proceed in their labour, they cut out evenly formed apartments or galleries, all connected with each other, and divided by the rows of pillars which it has been necessary to leave standing. Of course it is quite dark down the pit, and artificial light has to be used. The question now comes, What light must be used? All coal contains in its natural state, while underground, a considerable quantity of free uncombined gas, which it parts with as soon as it is exposed to the air. When kindled as a jet issuing from the coal, it burns with a bright flame like ordinary gas; if, however, it is mixed with a certain quantity of atmospheric air, and then brought into contact with a flame, it instantly explodes, frequently killing all within that part of the mine where it explodes, and blowing the walls and roof of the "way" to atoms. There is no danger of it exploding if it is not brought into contact with a flame, and many ingenious applications have been devised, but none so safe as the "Davy lamp," so called from its inventor, Sir Humphry Davy. By this lamp is indicated the condition of the air in the mine. This air will also not explode if it is mixed with more than a certain quantity of atmospheric air; the ventilation of a mine, therefore, forms an important consideration. The coal having been hewn is brought to the bottom of the shaft on "tubs," by either men and boys, or horses. A signal is now given to the engineman, and having been fastened to the "bond" it is drawn to the mouth of the pit. After having been sorted and cleaned, it is either carried to the vessels ready to receive it, or else "stacked' on the "bank" ready for future use. COALFIELDS OF ENGLAND. 1. Northumberland and Durham, supplying Northumber land and Durham, and most of the seaports on the east. 2. Yorkshire, Nottingham, and Derby, supplying a district reaching from Northampton to York. 3. Whitehaven, supplying Cumberland, and a portion of the neighbouring districts. 4. South Lancashire, supplying the cotton districts. 5. North Staffordshire. 6. South Staffordshire, supplying the iron works. 7. Shropshire and Coalbrook Dale. 8. Forest of Dean. 9. Bristol and South Gloucester. 10. Somersetshire. 11. North Wales. 12. South Wales. WILLIAM RANDLE. ANSWER TO BIBLE ENIGMA, No. 95. ACROSTIC. E ternally chosen with Jesus to rest, Like Him to appear in the realms of the blest; Not a note of their triumph shall ever decline. NAMES. Lydia I saac TEXTS. Genesis xxvii. 2.. Philemon i. 10. 2 Samuel xii. 7. M. A. COBB. No life is short that has attained life's great end the redemption of the soul from death. |